The Unofficial Opening Day … It’s Time for the Cubs Convention

Harry Caray referred to it as the “unofficial opening day”, some refer to it as the “kick-off to spring training”, call it what you want but the bottom line is baseball is just around the corner. The 27th Annual Cubs Convention officially begins this afternoon at the Hilton Chicago. Pat Hughes will once again have the honor of introducing the Cubs past, present and future during the Opening Ceremonies but this convention will be a little bit different than previous years.

Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer and the Cubs new regime will get their first real taste of the fan base over the next three days … as will the new players the Cubs have acquired and several of the organizations top prospects. The Cubs Convention is the original ‘fan fest’. Every other organization has just borrowed ideas from John McDonough’s original concept. And for those that have never attended a Cubs Convention, words cannot truly describe the event.

The annual ‘this is the year‘ optimism will be absent from this year’s convention. Instead of hearing promises about possibly winning some series of games in October, those in attendance will be able to listen to Epstein and Hoyer’s plan on how they are going to build the Chicago Cubs into an organization with sustained success … and might even learn what the ‘Cubs Way’ actually is.

Dale Sveum and a majority of his coaching staff will be on hand as well. Sveum and the coaches will have a chance to explain how they plan to get the most out of Epstein and Hoyer’s roster.

The most popular session of the weekend should be ‘Behind the Scenes with Theo Epstein‘ on Saturday morning. The first session of the day will be hosted by Len Kasper. After the hour with Epstein, ‘The Meet Cubs Baseball Management‘ should be interesting as well with Jed Hoyer, Randy Bush and Dale Sveum fielding questions about the current team.

Not only will there be current and former Cubs in attendance, there will also be representatives from the Iowa Cubs, Tennessee Smokies and Peoria Chiefs. WGN Radio will air shows from time to time on Friday and Saturday, including Sports Night Live with Dave Kaplan on Friday night.

The CCO will have daily recaps from all three days of the Convention … plus I will be tweeting as much info as I can. So if you are not following the CCO on Twitter, now is the time … Follow ChicagoCubsOnline on Twitter: @TheCCO

2012 Cubs Convention Schedule

Friday, January 13

5:00pm – 5:30pm – Opening Ceremonies

6:00pm – 6:45pm – Autograph Treasure Hunt

7:00pm – 9:00pm – Sports Night Live with Dave Kaplan, Andrea Darlas and Brian Noonan … the two hour show will be simulcast on 720 WGN